Ranil admitted inability to lead the UNP
Posted on December 17th, 2011
H. L. D. Mahindapala
The timing of the bombshell of the four Mahanayakes urging Ranil Wickremesinghe to quit the party leadership, was deadly. It couldnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t have come at a time worse than this when he is fighting for survival. It also comes at a time when Wickremesinghe has abandoned the Buddhist wing of the party and aligned himself openly with the Catholic wing. His handing over the leadership to John Ameratunga, a devoted Catholic, is a vindictive act aimed at publicly downgrading Karu Jayasuirya, the acknowledged Buddhist leader who is also his deputy. But this demotion has boomeranged on Wickremesinghe. The Mahanayakes statement clearly indicates that KaruƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s status has risen and it is WickremesingheƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s status that has gone down. This ill-conceived act is no better than the Americans handing over the leadership of Buddhist Vietnam to Catholic Din Diem. Diem was such a disaster that the CIA had to plot his assassination to get rid of him.
It is the internal divisions and tensions which have forced Wickremesinghe to align himself with the non-Sinhala-Buddhists in the UNP. His trusted factotums are Ameratunga, Ravi Karunanayake and the slimy and slippery Jayalath Jayawardena. Besides, the suspicions that he was actually pro-Christian (despite the pirith noola on his wrist) gained credence when Dr. Susantha Goonetilake documented in his book, A 16th Century Clash of Civilizations, the Portuguese Presence in Sri Lanka, that Wickremesinghe was baptized at St. MichaelƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Church, Kollu-pitiya. Perhaps, this could explain why he is wont to play pandu in Kollu-pitiya?
Aside from this, it is certain that Wickremesinghe has lost all traces of legitimacy to lead the party after the no-confidence motion passed on him by the four Mahanayakes. The Reformists within the Party had scored a coup in delegitimizing the leadership of Wickremesinghe in the eyes of the Sinhala-Buddhist electorate, which he needs if he is to win at all. The best of Buddhist leaders in the Party are aligned with Karu-Sajith wing. Only the straight-talking and gutsy Christian who is not with him is Rosy Senanayake. That too is a slap in the face of the Man from Kollu-pitiya. Rosy speaking from the Karu-Sajith wing is more credible and persuasive than if she was in the Kollu-pitiya Kalliya.
Wickremesinghe is now forced to depend on the pro-Christian, pro-Western wing of the Party to defend him.. The majority of the Sinhala-Buddhists have aligned themselves with the Karu-Sajith wing. Besides, in the worst case scenario, if Karu-Sajith wing loses then Wickremesinghe will have to swing, whether he likes it or not, closer to the Din Diems of the Party. But none of them has the national stature of either Karu or Sajith. They will also queer the pitch for Wickremesinghe because they will insist on their pound of flesh for under cutting Karu-Sajith and handing over the UNP corpse to Wickremesinghe. The political IOUs will force WickremesingheƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s hand to oblige them.
WickremesingheƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s knack of dividing his own party and isolating himself increasingly from the rest has no parallel in the history of party politics in Sri Lanka. He has lost the confidence of the people, lost the best men in the party, lost 20 elections in a row and now he has lost even the Mahanayakes. Now he has to go out and battle in the Sinhala-Buddhist electorate with Din Diems. It is not difficult to predict the reaction of the Sinhala-Buddhist electorate which has just recovered from the threats of separatism by the Jaffna Tamil minority. This is not written to put the minorities against the majority. This is to emphasize that majority-minority politics is a reality which no leader can ignore. With the Mahanayakes now giving him the marching orders how long can Wickremesinghe last with the backing of the Din Diems in the Bible belt? In any case, the Catholic coastal belt has always been with the UNP even if slime-balls like Jayalath Jayawardena are thrown in as UNP candidates. But how many votes can John, Ravi and Jayalath garner from the rest of the nation?
Of course, the biggest accusation thrown against Karu is that he left the party and came back. But what is WickremesingheƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s record? At least Karu came back to fight for the party. Wickremesinghe handed over the party, lock, stock and barrel to Sarath Fonseka, admitting by deed and word, that he is not fit to lead the UNP. Wickremesinghe and the UNP survives today thanks to Mahinda Rajapakse who defeated Sarath. If by any chance Sarath won the UNPers and Wickremesinghe would have been either in jail or gone underground, literally and metaphorically.
However, when Wickremesinghe joined hands with the other political misfit, Somawansa, and handed over the political leadership to Sarath both were confessing publicly that they are not fit to lead their parties, or the nation. Wickremesinghe surrendered to Prabhakaran and handed the whole of north and east to him, He surrendered to Sarath and handed over his party to him. Now he is selling the Sinhala-Buddhists down the river. Can the UNP or the people trust him to lead the UNP or the nation? So who should be thrown out today: Karu or Wickremesinghe?
Wickremesinghe represents the huge crisis facing the nation. From the streets of Cairo to Wall Street in New York the crises are faced by governments. In Sri Lanka it is the opposition that is facing the crisis of their own making. The right and the left are reeling with rebels rising from their own ranks. Only the centre is standing rock solid. Mahinda Rajapakse is laughing all the way to his vote banks. Furthrmore, he can also look forward to a comfortable free ride to his vote banks in the future as long as Wickremesinghe and Somawansa are pulling the opposition cart.
December 18th, 2011 at 2:15 am
RW nearly handed over considerable land mass ond coast line of Lanka to Tamil terrorists. There has to be a proper investigation of Ranil and CFA.
December 18th, 2011 at 5:09 am
There are divisions in the UNP. To divide it along religious lines is is not proper. Majority catholics and Buddhists of the Island nation are Sinhalese.
Whether it is the UNP or another main Sinhalese political party please do not bring in Buddhist and Catholic divisions. I am sure there are Hindus in the UNP. Where do they stand?
December 18th, 2011 at 7:02 am
Ben, you are absolutely correct.
RW should be investigated re his actions with the Norwegians, his action to reveal the identity of the long range intelligence group to the LTTE which resulted in the death of a majority of them at LTTE hands, the CFA, his activities at Batalanda and a host of other crimes he committed, plus his association with Gonawela Sunil.
It is high time another commission like the LLRC was appointed to investigate what RW did which caused the deaths of thousands of soldiers and the villagers in the North and East. There are others who should be investigated too. The Elephant pass debacle, the killing of 600 police STF where they were disarmed and handed over to LTTE who lined them up and shot them in cold blood are few of the incidents which need investigation. When General Janaka Perera began to reverse the situation in Jaffna where the army was under siege, why was he stopped and transferred out of Sri Lanka to Australia ? Later, he too was killed by the LTTE after he returned to Sri Lanka. He should have been allowed to finish his job. but professional soldiers like Janaka Perera had their hands tied.
Only when investigations are done and the truth is made public will Sri Lankans really rest in peace.
December 18th, 2011 at 7:15 am
Is Sujith a born again Buddhist? Or is he of the other variety?
December 18th, 2011 at 10:56 am
Whether it is going to be Ranil or Karu is immaterial at this juncture. We need to go forward with the task of developing a nation called “Sri Lankan” embracing all ethnic communities and a country devoid of poverty. Also we need a strong opposition too as that would place democracy at all levels in motion. For that purpose, having taken the track record into consideration, a personality like Ranil is highly undesirable. Properly speaking, if good Governance was in place he should have been tried for various crimes, including that of treason. I have oftenly stressed this aspect, but some tend to enumerate his “virtues,” against that of Karu. Ranil should begin to assess his own failures as a Leader in the electrates country wide rather than his vote base in Colombo and also as pointed out in this presentation, his associations with the personalities like Ravi Karunanayake, Dr. Jayaltha Jayawardane and so on.
No wonder, the present Government publicity campaign has been directed to promote Ranil for obvious reasons. I said earlier too, that so long as Ranil is the Leader of the UNP and the Opposition, HE Mahinda Rajapaksa has nothing to fear and nothing to plan for his political gains. This turn about I observed having listen to the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Chairman – Mr. Hudson Samarasinghe, in his programme ‘Dasa Desing” oftenly referred to “Ranil having a physical body from Royal College and a brain of a Montessori”, now a days highly placing him in high inegrity and of mental capacity to lead a meaningful Opposition.
I still say, starting from Batalanda, Ranil must be investigated.
December 18th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Kamal,
Hon Sajith Premadasa (MP) is Born Again Christian. So is Hon Rosy Senanayale (MP) and Hon Eraj Wickramatunga (MP).
December 18th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
More than what modern UNP did to my country conniving with the LTTE, what I cannot forget or forgive UNP most is when they organised to celebrate the invasion of country by mass war criminals Portuguese to this country. Timely win for Mahinda had avoided this disaster. It is they who came with sword in one hand and Bible in the other hand. It is they who converted the present day Catholic population by the most inhuman manner. It is this force of conversion going on by the form Catholic action to this day which we have to beware of. I am still not sure how the Baudhdha Balawegaya lead by L H Metthananda and T U de Silva ended. But we all know how revival brought bty Rev. Soma thera ended. 1965 coup attempt by the Church to topple the Mrs Bandaranaikke regime was the same conversion force. Eent LTTE is a Church run force aided by the international religious funded NGOs. We can never trust the UNP. But we can trust that the miracles of Temple of the Tooth will protect Sri Lanka as long as Buddhists remain loyal to Dhamma.
December 19th, 2011 at 7:24 am
Ranil re-elected as UNP leader.
People should vote him out! :)
December 19th, 2011 at 10:18 am
Not that I like it, but I knew RanilW would win hands down in this or any election to be the leader of present day UNP. What can we expect, if democracy within party apparatus is top down and not bottom up? Directly or indirectly, prevailing leader appoints most of those that vote at leadership election. And they in turn elect the leader. Its a chicken and egg situation. So KaruJ had no chance from the outset.
Anyway, no matter which Johnny win the leadership, they both have been the same. It doesn’t matter one dons a sarong and the other a trouser; both are proven Yankee doodles. Both had the similar standpoint and same outlook just like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Together they have represented and looked after the interest of NGOs, evangelists and the anti-national Colombian lot for seventeen years.
Needless to talk about what the winner, RanilW would do if he becomes the President for he had openly displayed all his colours while he ruled the country as Prime Minister in 2001-3.
There is nothing more to talk about Sarong Johnny now for he is down and under for good. But it must reminded to those that are hoping KaruJ’s comeback that he had joined the government with seventeen UNP MPs saying he wanted to lend a hand to the President to win the war but left it at the crucial hour before winning the war, alone. This is a treachery that none should forget.
Now that RanilW won the leadership, Evangelists must be hoping to ride the elephant and baptise us all. But I have this bad feeling that they have crucified many a villag based arch UNPers and shunted the rest of the UNPers to be in the wilderness for years to come.
All that means; whether one likes it or not, it’s plain sailing for Rajapakses for years to come.
Leela